How to Gift a Video Game from the Humble Bundle and Humble Store

The Humble Bundle started off as an online service, helping promote indie video games by "bundling" several games together as a limited-time package deal and donating part of the funds to charity.

The kicker, though, was that gamers could choose how much to pay for the bundle. Even 1 cent would purchase games, but if a gamer paid more than the average of what previous customers had paid, he or she would unlock an extra game or two as well.

Now the Humble Bundle holds weekly sales as well as larger promotional events, and has opened a store where gamers can browse a large collection of games.

All three purchasing options — Humble Bundle, Humble Weekly Sale and Humble Store — are great places to buy computer games, either for yourself or as a gift.

Gift-giving from the Humble Bundle and Humble Weekly Sale

What you see is what you get with the limited-time Humble Bundle and the Humble Weekly Sale, but if the current bundle appeals to you, then begin the purchasing process as normal.

Remember to check what the current average payment is, because that's the minimum you'll need to pay to unlock the full bundle. To pay that amount, select "Custom Amount" and enter it in.

Then at the bottom of the page, you'll see the words "Is this order a gift?" Check the box beneath it. When you make your purchase, instead of the games themselves, you'll receive a URL you can send to the person for whom you're buying the gift. By clicking the link, the giftee will be able to download the games.

Gift-giving from the Humble Store

Once you've browsed the store's selection and put the games you wish to purchase into your cart, click the "Cart" button in the upper right. Check the box next to the words "Gift purchase" and then choose your payment option.

As with the Humble Bundle and Humble Weekly Sales, you'll then receive a URL that you can send to the person to whom you wish to give the games.

The way it works now doesn't always work as the directions indicate. I've used the 'gift' functionality with Humble Bundle before and it worked but it has recently changed with their new store and process. I attempted to gift an item to my son's email and it was never received by him and I was unable to redeem it again after that. It was lost in limbo.

So, this isn't just an issue with people not reading directions, there ARE issues with how the gifting feature from Humble Bundle is working. Yes, this is a simplistic walk through to help for those not knowing, but it also outlines that there are a lot of quirks with the new process.